Student Sydnah Swails Wins First Place at GCA Film Festival

Last semester, Emmanuel College Senior Sydnah Swails submitted one of her video class projects to the Georgia Communication Association’s Annual Film Festival, a statewide competition among public and private college and university students.

She recently learned she won first place. Her movie was shown during convocation recently, and she was presented with a plaque by Jennifer Lester Benson, Communication Department Chair at Emmanuel as well as executive board member of GCA.

“Not only were the judges impressed with the quality of her video but with her positive message,” Benson says. “She was awarded their highest honor, first place. Her movie was exhibited at the GCA Annual Conference in February.”

Swails graduates in May with her Bachelor of Science in Multimedia Communication. She is a valued member of Emmanuel’s communication program as a model student, video assistant, and yearbook editor.

"My video, “Snowball Effect,” is a redemptive movie about how one decision can affect your life in a negative or positive way, inducing a series of negative effects or helping one avoid those effects,” Swails explains. “This particular video is about how the loss of innocence before the right time can create a series of unfortunate circumstances, but it also offers redemption in the sense that the leading character had the opportunity to change her past by the end of the movie."

Benson says the motto of the Communication Department at Emmanuel is to impact the world for Christ through media. “It always our hope that our graduates will do just that, and we are so proud that one of our current students is doing that now,” she adds.